I Was a Teenage Gamer is the daily journal of an extremely competent young man pursuing his goal of becoming a staff member at his favorite independent gaming blog, Destructoid. Beginning on his 19th birthday, he embarks on the adventure of a lifetime while sharing his experiences and thoughts as a video-game addict and spilling blood, sweat, tears and a variety of other bodily fluids.

Hey again! Welcome to the second entry in my journal and further proof I have nothing better to do with my weekend evenings! Huzzah!

No, but seriously. Thanks for reading this column, everyone! Last entry I wrote all about what this project entails and just why I'm doing it. I feel like most of the boring details are out of the way now but that is purely a matter of opinion. Yesterday, I said I'd talk a bit more about what I hope to bring to the table if I were employed at Destructoid and some of my personal thoughts.

At this point in my life, the things I learn have a big influence over my train of thoughts and how I view the world. I'm in my second semester of college and my major is Advertising but I also have courses in Marketing, Communications and Design. Now, I wouldn't stretch your suspension of disbelief by saying that everything I'm educated on is paramount to the gaming world. But it does come in handy looking at the industry from a purely business perspective.

It's helped me to become more aware of the marketing side of the gaming industry. Promotional events, demo booths complete with girls you could have sworn you saw at Hooters last night and those occasional, semi-relevant items that publisher's send out to the press (like when EA sent Nick Chester a demonic check for $200 as a promotion for Dante's Inferno). That's all marketing. And it takes a lot of it. Especially these days where budgets can reach far into the millions, public attention is something any publisher needs to grasp by any means possible. Thats why we have Heidi Klum swinging a plastic guitar around in her underwear and Jimmy Kimmel blowing choppers out of the sky with an RPG. Because video games.

People have a sturdy layer of cognitive dissonance and psychological blocking when it comes to advertising. Because of that, the game industry is just like any other highly competitive business: a year-long mud wrestling match. At my best guess it will only get more aggressive from here on out. My worst fear is that these highly promoted games don't ruin things for the smaller, lower budget developers who start to see their sales really being eaten away when people are blowing their gaming budget on Call of Duty 17, Halo 29, Madden 2027 etc.

Anyways, I feel a rant coming on and I should really save it for another entry.

As I grow in knowledge of the marketing/advertising end of things, I believe that could be something that I can offer to Destructoid. They handle themselves pretty awesome but we all know Niero does his best to keep industry PR (those bloody leeches) away from the associate editors. Not that I think Jim Sterling is very sensitive to those things. But perhaps an opportunity for a middle-man lies therein? Guess I might find out one day!

Thanks for reading, and I'll be back tomorrow with another crudely written journal about things that are only slightly interesting. Don't forget to Fap! Just make sure to clean yourself up after. Than scroll down and hit the FAP button, would ya? :)

About DreRoxOne of us since 12:08 AM on 09.20.2008

Hey! I'm a really cool guy. Get to know me. Usually you can find me hanging out with my friends, pretending to freestyle good, making up designs, creating movies or just sitting around. I have a thing for 8bit so I makeup sprite characters on occasion.